I just want to ask if there is an interest in SVG system maps. At the moment there are screenshots from the game's navmap, FL-Companion or none on the wiki pages.
I would argue that SVGs could replace them, if there is enough interest. The pros for that are numerous: simple XML and therefore able to be build and modified by almost every programming language. Once a script is made, it can rebuild the maps with new data within seconds.
SVGs are interactive and symbols could link to other wiki pages (like bases or connecting system when clicking on a jumphole) or show other behavior (tooltips etc.). They gain advantage from front-end manipulation (CSS, DOM access per JS, ...) and as a vector graphic they scale without jaggies.
I would not ask if I've already tried it. I used the universe.ini to create a SVG map of Sirius and wrote a generation script. It looks different than the map on dropbox (here) because it uses the float grid values from the ini and therefore looks like the ingame map (with the benefits of the dropbox map).
I've uploaded it temporarily to my google drive. To view it correctly download it (the render by google is incorrect) and open it in your browser of choice. Link to the map: SVG Map. Please respect the copyrights and stuff and don't give the link further away.
This is a first draft and every color, stroke and font can be customized with different CSSs. The stellar systems are represented by circles with a border-color according to the dropbox map and lore.
If you watch carefully, you see that there are systems in pink. I could not classify these system properly because of discrepancies in the sources I used (dropbox-map, laws of sirius thread [which needs some attention by the house leaders], knowledge from 4.86, the wiki and the system clarification post).
When I'm done I will release the SVG under CC so that it can be shared and used. Therefore I want to ask for clarification for the 'pink' systems. The systems I need help with:
Roussillon, Baffin, Orkney. According to system clarification post these are Taus. True?
Lewis, Rishiri, Okinawa, Saar. System clarification post says these are Omegas, Sigmas or Taus. Dropbox map indicates these are part of Bretonia, Kusari or Rheinland. Which classification should the map use?
Alabama, Ellesmere, Puerto Rico, Chester, Londonderry, Chukoku, Tohoku, Luneburg, Puerto Rico. Sounds like house space, but the system clarification post doesn't mention them. Some of them are referenced in the law thread and are painted in house colors in the 4.87 map.
Drake, Farore. Nowhere mentioned. No Tau, no Bretonia. What are they?
Cassini. Independent in 4.86 and now part of Liberty according to the new map. True?
So thanks in advance if you answer these questions and if you are interested in SVG maps I will start working on them. So please post your opinions.
Dont make Omicron 94 we dont want that system to me fully mapped by Non Benitez
I am not a native English Speaker, so i make grammar errors.
But it annoys me when people make silly comments about that... especially brits who for the most part can't speak their own language let alone anyone elses!
While looking at the wiki, I noticed that the use of SVGs is not permitted atm. A wiki admin would have to change that (allow SVGs for upload and use). Meanwhile I can transform the renders of the SVGs into PNGs. But I would like to test if links declared in the SVG work out on the wiki.
My whole approach is to combine the creation of system maps and their interactivity (links, tooltips, ...) in some scripts which can be run after each update of Disco to keep these resources up to date. The source of the data is the mod itself (crawling through inis and dlls to present them like FLCompanion). I'm gonna write this stuff in the next weeks/months.
@Alex: The functionality of a HTML map is present in the SVG itself. For the Wiki there is the ImageMap extension installed (http://discoverygc.com/wiki/Special:Version ). If SVGs won't be allowed in the future, I could change my scripts once they're done to create the code for the imagemap extension itself.
@Snak3: Do you know the owner of the website? I would like to know if the system images are screenshots or created otherwise.
@roadrunner: For the sake of completeness almost every wiki contains spoilers and secrets.
(12-03-2013, 11:27 PM)Acuba Wrote: While looking at the wiki, I noticed that the use of SVGs is not permitted atm. A wiki admin would have to change that (allow SVGs for upload and use). Meanwhile I can transform the renders of the SVGs into PNGs. But I would like to test if links declared in the SVG work out on the wiki.
Unfortunately we'll need a bit more than that, as the regular wiki sysops do not have direct access to the configuration files. Won't be a problem, though - I remember running into this before, and there are plenty of (or, well, two) admins that I should hopefully be able to convince to enable it for us if I give them some concise instructions. Not sure why it was not enabled from the get-go, to be honest. SVGs are useful.
(12-03-2013, 11:27 PM)Acuba Wrote: @Snak3: Do you know the owner of the website? I would like to know if the system images are screenshots or created otherwise.
They are unfortunately are all screenshots. That website was made mostly as a long evening's web design and web page auto-generation exercise than anything, so the content on it is a bit so-and-so, to be honest.
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Consider me extremely interested in auto-generated SVG maps for the wiki, by the way! I'm happy to see that someone has an interest in working on this, as the navmap options that we have outside of the game are rather limited, to be honest, and the possible applications for good SVG maps (on the wiki) are almost boundless in comparison.
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(12-03-2013, 01:56 AM)roadrunner Wrote: Dont make Omicron 94 we dont want that system to me fully mapped by Non Benitez
yes and i keep shooting ships that disturbe the gravesite incl other sairs
I am not a native English Speaker, so i make grammar errors.
But it annoys me when people make silly comments about that... especially brits who for the most part can't speak their own language let alone anyone elses!
A small status update from my side. At the moment I'm able to parse nebulae and asteroid fields including their exclusion zones. Nebulae use their defined color and are transparent. Asteroid fields use the same method atm, but i have already the *.tga files, so they will look more like on the ingame navmap in future (thats the reason why the systems are quite colorful atm) .
Tradelanes, jump holes and jump gates are there too. Looking not very fancy, but yeah. Suns are using the color gradient from their definition (core and glow gradient) xD.
The Google Viewer transforms them into an *.png, that's why they look so edgy. :/ Download and view them in your browser of choice for the full experience (don't worry, no JavaScript inside).
The next steps are planets and bases. Afterwards the missing stellar objects: wrecks, depots, weapon platforms, hazard buoys and stuff with an id.
atm the script is capable of rendering every system without errors in one go. It takes about 5 seconds. IDs are gathered too and will be used for displaying object names. And the stuff is modular, so rendering options can be turned on and off (like exclusion zones (look at the minefield in LI06).
Please remember that this is a WIP and things can change.